Hundreds of people who own short-term holiday rentals in the Byron Shire are flouting the State Government’s new registration rules, according to Victims of Holiday Letting (VOHL).
And letting platforms such as Airbnb and Stayz are doing nothing about it, they say.
But the organisation representing the owners of short-term holiday rentals has questioned the evidentiary basis of these claims, and pointed out that the registration rules have been in force in Byron for less than ten days.
As of January 31, the owners of short-term holiday rentals in the Shire were required to register their properties with the NSW Department of Planning.
This registration process is designed to ensure that owners are renting out safe, compliant dwellings that adhere to fire regulations, and that hosts are adhering to the government’s holiday letting Code of Conduct.
In a verbal submission to last week’s Byron Council meeting, a VOHL spokesperson said that, more than a week after the new rules were introduced, many local holiday rental owners had failed to register.
Other owners appeared to be falsely claiming that they were exempt from registering, he said.
‘An online search of Airbnb shows that many STRA (Short Term Rental Accommodation) properties in the Byron Shire had not registered by the mandatory date but were still being advertised,’ said the spokesperson, who asked that his name not be published for safety reasons.
‘This shows that Airbnb is not complying with the regulation.
‘Similar non-compliance is also being seen in Booking.com, Stayz, and a local holiday let management company.
‘Many homes are listed as “exempt” on the advertising.
‘It’s obvious that many of those listed as exempt should not be, but it appears that Airbnb has accepted their claims on face value.’
But John Gudgeon from the Holiday Letting Organisation (HLO), which advocates for the right of homeowners to holiday let their properties, said that simply searching through Airbnb was not a valid, scientific basis for making such claims.
‘There are many properties on Airbnb that are no longer active and so obviously would not have registered’, Mr Gudgeon said.
‘You can’t spend a couple of hours searching Airbnb and claim to have accurate information about the whole Shire.’
‘Aside from that, it’s February 8 – anyone could tell you that it takes time to work through the bureaucracy of registration, both at the owner’s end and at the department’s end.’
‘Everyone who I know [with a short-term rental] has registered.’
Mr Gudgeon also said that he believed Airbnb and the other letting platforms were taking their obligations seriously.
‘I know for a fact that they are sending things out to owners reminding them that they need to register,’ he said.
‘But expecting this all to be done by February 8? Goodness.’
Yet the VOHL spokesperson said that it was likely that some owners of holiday rentals had chosen not to register their properties because they were taking place in illegal or unauthorised dwellings.
This included those who had been granted consent to build a secondary dwelling by Byron Council on the proviso that they must not turn the dwelling into a short-term rental.
Mr Gudgeon said that his organisation supported stamping out the practice of renting out illegal dwellings.
‘No one in this sector wants anything to do with those activities,’ he said.
‘I would add, though, that there’s heaps of people doing dodgy stuff in this Shire and elsewhere across the State.’
Companies such as Airbnb face fines of up to $110,000 for failing to adhere to the government’s new holiday letting regime.
Individual property owners who fail to comply are first to receive a warning letter, and can then be fined up to $20,000.
‘We want the government to do what it has undertaken to do and start sending out warning letters,’ the VOHL spokesperson said.
VOHL is asking the Council to contact the fair trading minister seeking action to ensure that Airbnb and other platforms abide by the regulations.
The Echo asked the Department of Planning what action was being taken in relation to the enforcement of its new short-term rental accommodation rules.
A spokesperson replied, ‘Homeowners must register if they want to use their property for short-term accommodation – 1,616 Byron Bay properties have been reigistered so far’.
‘If someone is not complying with the rules, penalties may apply and anyone concerned should contact the local council to investigate’.
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